Saturday, April 24, 2010

India's answer to Brokeback Mountain ready to hit cinemas

First Indian film to feature a gay kiss, Dunno Y … Na Jaane Kyun, likely to spark controversy...

The posters are ready, so is the film. The only question is whether the Indian public is too. Dunno Y … Na Jaane Kyun, a film featuring India's first cinematic gay kiss, is scheduled to go on general release within weeks. Already dubbed India's answer to Brokeback Mountain it tells the story of an aspiring model who travels to Mumbai, India's commercial and film capital, to seek his fortune and enters into a homosexual relationship, in part to further his career.

Trailers of the film have been well received by activists. "It looks good," said Ashok Row Kavi, editor of Bombay Dost, India's first gay magazine. It talks of the complexities [of being gay] in India. Taboos are still very strong and hopefully it will change things."

For decades Bollywood avoided graphic depictions of even heterosexual kisses, with films famously cutting away to images of budding flowers, breaking waves or crashing waterfalls at the crucial moment. Earlier this year a film called Love, Sex … and Dhokha (ditching) which included relatively graphic scenes of heterosexual sex was released. Though there was much media debate, the film generated little public outrage, encouraging those seeking to draw the largely formulaic Indian film industry in new directions. However the most explicit sequences in the film were cut or altered by censors.